Definitions

Lysander (d. 395 BCE) was a Spartan statesman and general who famously defeated the Athenian navy at the Battle of Aigospotamoi in 405 BCE, which finally won the Peloponnesian War. Lysander gained a reputation for a fiery personality, daring...

Atahualpa (Atawallpa) was the last ruler of the Inca Empire. He reigned from 1532 until his capture and execution by the invading Spanish forces led by Francisco Pizarro in 1533. The troubled Incas had suffered six years of damaging civil...

Empress Wu Zetian (Empress Consort Wu, Wu Hou, Wu Mei Niang, Mei-Niang, and Wu Zhao, l. 624-705 CE, r. 690-704 CE) was the only female emperor of Imperial China. She reigned during the Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE) and was one of the most effective...

Horus is the name of a sky god in ancient Egyptian mythology which designates primarily two deities: Horus the Elder (or Horus the Great), the last born of the first five original gods, and Horus the Younger, the son of Osiris and Isis...

Pyrrhus (also Pyrrhos or Phyrrhus, c. 319 - 272 BCE ) was the king of Epirus in northern Greece between 306 and 302 BCE and again between 297 and 272 BCE. Winning great victories against the armies of Macedon and Rome, he is considered one...

Emperor Harshavardhana, better known as Harsha, lived from 590 to 647 CE and was the last ruler of the Vardhana Empire, the last great empire in ancient India before the Islamic Invasion. He ruled from 606 CE to 647 CE. After Harshavardhana's...

Demosthenes (c. 384 - 322 BCE) was an Athenian statesman who famously stood against Macedonian king Philip II and whose surviving speeches have established him as one of the greatest patriots and powerful orators from ancient Greece. He is...

Nephthys was one of the original five gods of ancient Egypt born of the union of Geb (earth) and Nut (sky) after the creation of the world. She was the fourth born after Osiris, Isis, and Set and was the older sister of Horus (usually referred...

The art of the Inca civilization of Peru (c. 1425-1532 CE) produced some of the finest works ever crafted in the ancient Americas. Inca art is best seen in highly polished metalwork, ceramics, and, above all, textiles, which was considered...

The Yayoi Period is one of the oldest historical periods of Japan spanning from c. 300 BCE to c. 250 CE, preceded by the Jomon Period and followed by the Kofun Period. The name Yayoi comes from the district in Tokyo where the first artifacts...